On July 15, 2024, in Seoul, during an official visit to the Republic of Korea (RoK), the delegation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA), led by Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra, Member of the CPV Central Committee, had a working session with the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) of RoK. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ba Chien, NAPA President, is also a member of the delegation.
Vietnamese Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra (L) and the RoK’s Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min.
Attending the working session was Mr. Vu Ho, Vietnamese Ambassador to RoK.
The delegation was received by Minister of the Interior and Safety of the RoK Lee Sang-min, leaders of MOIS, and leaders of other related units.
In his speech at the reception, Minister Lee Sang-min expressed his pleasure in welcoming and working with Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra and the delegation from MoHA. He also provided a brief overview of the RoK’s situation in recent decades.
Accordingly, the RoK has rapidly developed from an aid-recipient country to one that provides assistance to other nations. “This underscores the crucial role of the civil service in implementing policies that serve businesses and the public in recent years…”. This process has been spearheaded by public administration reforms. Consequently, in recent years, the RoK has focused on public administration reforms aimed at better serving its citizens. The RoK has accelerated the application of information technology, enhanced digital transformation capabilities, and improved the capacity of its civil servants. The country has undertaken various reforms in both central and local government, digital transformation, and the enhancement of digital government capabilities.
Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra at the reception.
In her part, Vietnamese Minister of Home Affairs Pham Thi Thanh Tra expressed her sincere gratitude for the cordial welcome extended by the Minister and the MOIS of the RoK to the delegation from MoHA of Viet Nam.
She highlighted Viet Nam’s significant achievements despite an uncertain geopolitical landscape and the emergence of new challenges, saying that the country has maintained macroeconomic stability, controlled inflation, ensured major economic balances, and achieved a 6.42 per cent growth rate in the first half of 2024
She noted substantial progress in Viet Nam’s strategic breakthroughs, including institutional building, administrative reform, and infrastructure development, particularly in transportation and digital infrastructure, social welfare, foreign relations, security, and national defense, stressing that these efforts have elevated the country’s prestige and position on the global stage.
According to her, alongside the remarkable development of the bilateral relationship between Viet Nam and the RoK, the MoHA of Viet Nam has established excellent relations with South Korean partners in various areas of state management under the Ministry’s purview. The two sides have actively shared information regarding public sector reform, good governance, government renewal; and organized ministerial-level roundtable discussions on civil service reform and training. The Korean side has hosted several delegations from the MoHA of Viet Nam for short-term training courses in RoK. These results have aided MoHA of Viet Nam in advising the government and successfully promoting administrative reform programs, civil service and civil servant reform, administration modernization, digital transformation, and e-government towards digital government.
Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra and Minister Lee Sang-min signing a Memorandum of Understanding on Public Administration cooperation between MoHA of Viet Nam and MOIS of RoK for the 2024 – 2027 period.
Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra and Minister Lee Sang-min signing a Memorandum of Understanding on Public Administration cooperation between MoHA of Viet Nam and MOIS of RoK for the 2024 – 2027 period.
During the reception, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra and Minister Lee Sang-min reached a high level of consensus on strengthening cooperation between the two ministries in the field of public administration. Accordingly, a seminar on government innovation in response to global challenges will be organized by the end of the year; the RoK will enhance information sharing to support Viet Nam in administrative reform, state governance, and the reform and restructuring of local governments.
Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra assessed that the comprehensive strategic partnership cooperation between Viet Nam and RoK is increasingly being consolidated, with cooperation in various fields becoming more substantial and deepening; the understanding and friendship between the peoples of the two countries are also growing stronger. During a working session with the Vietnamese Embassy in the RoK in the morning of the same day, Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra expressed her hope that the embassy will serve as a bridge to boost bilateral cooperation in the fields of the RoK’s expertise, such as digital transformation, e-government, state governance, smart city management models, quality human resource training, and bilateral cooperation in human resource training.
As part of the program, the MoHA delegation will continue working with the Seoul city government on smart city construction and management; attracting and recruiting civil servants into the public sector; decentralization and transfer of urban management power. The delegation will also have meetings with the Ministry of Personnel Management (MPM) of the RoK, the governments of Daejeon city and Gyeonggi province, and some other partner units.
Meeting participants.
An overview of the reception.
